Yogi Ramacharaka's books were among the first I
ever bought and read from cover to cover. There was no reference to who this
person actually was. One day, though, I somewhere read his real name was Atkinson,
and it said he was born inHull, England. That was it. I
had to do with it. That was no real drama, of course, for I had bought the books
because of their contents.

One day in late 1999, more than 29 years later, while surfing
the Internet, I landed on the Yoga Research and Education Center,
where it was said that, according to Georg
Feuerstein, "this Ramacharaka was not an actual person. The name was the
pseudonym of two peopleŚWilliam Warren Atkinson, who had left his law practice
in Chicago to practice Yoga, and his teacher Baba Bharata."

Now that intrigued me a bit, for now I had two
kinds of information. I wrote an e-mail to him and asked him whether he had any
knowledge about the possibility of Ramacharaka being born in Hull, England. He
did not.

So I screwed up my courage a bit and on 9th
December 1999 I wrote a letter to the City Council of Hull and asked them
whether there was any reference to Atkinson in their files. According to Mr J G
Watkins, BA, the
Genealogist & Publications Officer of the Hull Libraries, the correct name
is William Walker Atkinson, and for this Mr
Watkins refers to the British Museum
Catalogue of Printed Books. According to the census, there was no-one called
William W Atkinson born in Hull, England. The enclosed photocopy of the books
William W Atkinson had published shows a publisher in Chicago.

Apart from some books in Dutch, one of my books
is called "Gnani Yoga", and at its back it advertises "The
Secret of Mental Magic" by William W Atkinson. The list I got from Mr
Watkins mentions that title. This means that besides publishing under the name
"Yogi Ramacharaka", Atkinson also published under his own name. He has
even co-operated with a man called Edward E. Beals ("The Personal Power
Books", 12 vol., 1992)

My English Ramacharaka books are all published by L. N. Fowler & Co.,
London. All of them have a Publishers' Notice, written by The Yogic Publication
Society. And that's it. Then, all of a sudden, I noticed I had one more Dutch
title. It also mentions that Publishers' Notice. And at the bottom it says: The
Yogi Publication Society, Chicago, April 1906.

So in all probability Mr Feuerstein's information
seems to be almost correct. It might come down to this: "The name Ramacharaka
was the pseudonym of two peopleŚWilliam Walker Atkinson, who had left his law practice
in Chicago to practice Yoga, and his teacher Baba Bharata."

Nevertheless, I would be happy if some of my
readers could tell me the present (e-mail) address of the Yogi Publication
Society in Chicago. If they don't have any information on Yogi Ramacharaka, then
who does?

23 May 2000, four months
later. The answer to the previous question
came in late at night - in fact, almost at midnight. Some nice person, called
Bob and hailing from the south side of Chicago and now living in Switzerland,
mentioned to me an URL that contained the missing information on Yogi Ramacharaka's
life. And the owner of that site, Thorne Palmer, knew the snail mail address of
the Yogi Publication Society: P.O. Box 600190 , Jacksonville, FL
32260. And no, no telephone and no e-mail. Just pen and paper. :-)

Now read the final conclusion of our story.

This information about the
Ramacharaka/Atkinson connection was provided by Yoga Publications.

Dear Friend,

It is regrettable that no
biographical works exist on Yogi Ramacharaka at all, and we find it most
surprising that the two men who wrote the books attributed to him failed to
write about the man himself.

Ramacharaka was born in India in
about the year 1799. He set forth at an early age to educate himself and to seek
a better philosophy for living. Travelling throughout the East almost always on
foot, he visited the depositories of books available. The primary places where
libraries were open to him were lamaseries and monasteries, although with the
passing of time some private libraries of royalty and of wealthy families were
also thrown open to him.

In about the year 1865, after
many years of searching and many visits to the lonely high places where he could
fast and meditate, Ramacharaka found a basis for his philosophy. At about this
same time, he took as a pupil, Baba Bharata, who was the eight year old son of a
Brahmin family. Together teacher and pupil retraced the steps of the teacher's
earlier travels, while Ramacharaka indoctrinated the boy with his philosophy.

In 1893, feeling that his life
was drawing to a close, Ramacharaka sent his pupil forth to carry their beliefs
to the new world. Arriving in Chicago where the World Columbian Exposition was
in progress, Baba Bharata was an instant success. He lectured before
enthusiastic audiences from all parts of the world who were visiting the Fair,
attracting a considerable following in the process. Many wished him to start a
new religion - but he felt only the drive to write on the subject which he
lectured on so effectively.

After the close of the Fair, Baba
Bharata attempted to write on these subjects in the newspapers and magazines of
the day. Having no talent for writing, he was not able to put into written word
those thoughts which he could speak so clearly on.

In the closing years of the
1800's, Baba Bharata became acquainted with William Walker Atkinson, an English
author who had written along similar lines and whose books had been published by
ourselves and by our London connection, L.N. Fowler & Company Ltd.

The men collaborated and with
Bharata providing the material and Atkinson the writing talent, they wrote the
books which they attributed to Yogi Ramacharaka as a measure of their respect.
The very fact that after all these years their books are well known around the
world and sell better with every passing year is a credit, too, to the two men
who wrote the books.

- Yoga Publication Society

16 June 2000 -
Well, I thought this was the final conclusion. I was wrong. The more information
I added to this "investigation", the more replies I got. I already
mentioned Bob from Switzerland and Thorne
Palmer (see above). There was
also Mr Allister Hardiman from Australia, who sent me Atkinson's photo. And now
there is Mr Khalil Abdullah from
California. E-mail, what a wonderful invention! It resulted in his sending me
seven photocopies. Though I now can elaborate on the person of Atkinson, the
information throws another veil of mystery on Ramacharaka himself at the same
time.

Let me first tell you about the biographical/critical sources of these
photocopies:

Certification
of Death of Mr William Walker Atkinson [graphic 70.6 KB]
This is a true copy of the official record filed with the
Registrar-Recorder/County/Clerk.
Now we are sure he was American. But it also proves that the information
from the Yoga Publication Society is not that accurate... So, what are we
actually dealing with?

William Walker Atkinson was born
December 5, 1862, in Baltimore, Maryland. He died November 22, 1932, in
California. For the causes of his death, see the death certificate.
In October 1889 he married Margaret Foster Black of Beverley, New Jersey. They
had two children.
He pursued a business career from 1882 to 1894. In 1894 he was admitted as an
attorney to the Bars of Pennsylvania. His profession as a lawyer was not easy
and the stress soon took its toll. After some years he experienced a nervous
breakdown. He looked for healing and around 1900 he found it with New Thought,
with its major centre in Chicago. He moved to Chicago and became as well an
active promoter of the movement as an editor and author. In 1900 he worked as an
associate editor of Suggestion, a New Thought journal. He then met Sydney
Flowers, the well-known New Thought publisher and businessman and teamed up with
him. From 1901 to 1905 he edited Flowers' New Thought magazine. Meanwhile
he also founded his own Psychic Club and the so-called Atkinson School of Mental
Science. Both were located in the same building as Flowers' Psychic Research
Company and New Thought Publishing Company. [ Atkinson is also said to
have been a former "Golden Dawn" chief and the author (or one of
three) of the so-called Kybalion (1908). Due to lack of information, I
cannot elaborate on this - and besides, it would be a bit too far off-track. ]

As an editor and author Atkinson wrote two comprehensive libraries of
metaphysical books. One was published under his own name and treated New Thought
subjects. These books became very popular and influential among New Thought
devotees and practitioners. The other one was published under his pen name Yogi
Ramacharaka - though some sources mention Swami Ramacharaka, which I assume as
wrong, since none of the books I have bears that name. While performing his New
Thought editor job, Atkinson got interested in Hinduism. The cause of this
interest must
have come from somewhere. We will discuss this in a few moments. He started
writing these books in 1903. In that year, he was also admitted to the Bars of
Illinois, which means he did not leave that part of his life aside. If we assume
that he also practised himself what he preached, then that must have helped him
quite a lot to strengthen his nervous system. He wrote about 13 books under this
pseudonym. They were published by the Yogi Publication Society in Chicago and
reached more people than his New Thought works did. In fact, all his books on
yoga are still reprinted today.

Beginning 1916 he started writing
articles for Elizabeth Towne's magazine The Nautilis, and from 1916 to
1919 he edited the journal Advanced Thought.

In addition to all this, he wrote
several books on psychology-related topics such as mind power, self-healing,
mental fascination, and popular occultism.

Atkinson's books on yoga were so
well written that even people in India started quoting Ramacharaka as an
authority on the subject. Our sources, however, tell us that, despite it, this
is not the case: they are, so we read, but ingenious and skilfully assembled
compilations from other works. [ Nothing new under the sun. Just compare
Hathapradipika, Shiva Samhita, Gheranda Samhita, and Goraksha Shatakam with one
another... ] Despite his being a so-called authority, he never founded a yoga
centre or a Hindu movement or group. Perhaps that was a way to retain his
anonymity as an American...

Now, how about this Ramacharaka
person? Did he really exist? I can't tell for sure. But it is a bit strange that
only the Yoga Publication Society in Chicago mentions the story of Yogi
Ramacharaka and Baba Bharata. None of the sources mentioned above do - despite
the fact they do know quite a lot about Atkinson. While searching the Internet,
however, I found one book that mentions his name, but I do not have enough
information to draw any conclusions. His name is mentioned together with some of
the well-know names of the Theosophical Society. I wonder what - if anything at
all - is in their
archives...

At the time the above mentioned
World Columbian Exposition took place, Swami Vivekananda arrived to attend the
World Parliament of Religions (1893). He stayed in the United States to lecture
and tour the country, and it would stand to reason that our friend Atkinson
attended his lectures, for after all, Vivekananda was the source for
Hinduism and yoga. Baba Bharata was visiting the Fair too. Mere
coincidence?

I cannot say whether Yogi
Ramacharaka was a real person or just a figment of someone's creative
imagination - and in the latter case, quite probably Atkinson's. Or was it the
Yoga Society's, so as to make things look a bit more exotic and attractive?
After all, they were/are a publishing society...
If it was Atkinson's, then I for one wonder why someone, writing so well on the
topic of yoga, does not honour the virtue of Satya or truthfulness, and leaves
people from all over the globe, but especially those from India, under the
impression that this Ramacharaka was a real person. You can call me a
hair-splitter, but then I'd like to kindly advise you to (re)study the Yamas and
ponder on the concept of Maha-Vrata, the Great Vow (Yogasutras, Sadhana Pada
31)...
You must admit it is both hard to believe and to swallow. But who can tell?
Atkinson had a family, he had relatives, friends,... someone, on this globe,
must know....

27 June 2000 -
I had sent a letter to the Yoga Publication Society. Thorne Palmer [see above]
proved to be wrong: they do have an e-mail address nowadays. Quite by surprise
an e-mail dropped into my box. I invited the person in question to go and read
this webpage. He/she did and wrote me a second e-mail. Here is what it said:

"I read your sight
with great interest. You have decidedly more information than we do, and I
congratulate your persistence in digging for and obtaining it.

We have been operating this business for the past 14 years, and the
people before us operated it for approximately 20 years before that.
Although this has remained in our family since its inception, we can't
account for archives and record-keeping dating back to the early years
when the authors were living and collaborating -- or so we've been told.
What information we offer was put together some years ago from bits and
pieces of stories told to us. Therefore we are not able to vouch for
its authenticity. The writer was making an attempt to satisfy readers who
were seeking some of the information that you have been able to obtain
through the internet."

Atkinson played a part in
New Thought history. I have never heard of this New Thought, but it stands to reason to suppose this was about concepts
somewhat in the Indian concept style.

Exactly. New Thought is simply a restatement of traditional Indian concepts
and philosophy minus the focus on the Hindu pantheon of deities. It also "softens" the Hindu cultural aspect and tailors it for a mostly Christian audience.
An example of this can be found in Ramacharaka's "Advanced Course...." were he mentions what the atributes of a true lover of God are. In
this beautiful exposition he mentions, and I quote: " In the darkness of
the night he (i.e. the true lover of God) has felt his Father's presence, by the
glare of the flash of illumination he has seen His form for a moment, and that
memory is burned into his mind". In other parts therein Ramacharaka also refers
to God as "Father." Obviously, no true Hindu would refer to God as 'father'.

Atkinson played a (small) part in "The Golden Dawn". Occult
matters.

Yes, apparently. Fortunately -to his credit- it seems he did not have any
extensive connection to this org.

Atkinson knew people from the Theosophical Society. That's straight to
the Indian concepts.

Yes, again... ditto the Golden Dawn connection.

Atkinson lived in a time Yoga Vedanta itself came to
America, got more interested in Hinduism, finally chose a pseudonym and started telling his message. Nothing wrong with choosing a pseudonym, and since he is talking
about Hinduism, why not an Indian name?

I agree. The World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 included the World
Parliament of Religions as one of its "attractions". Although the WPR's itself
passed more or less unnoticed by the mass of crowds (who went to see and participate in the more "exciting" parts of the Expo), it was a very successful
'showcase' venue for the "Hindu" religions especially - that being a 'first time'
introduction of Vedanta doctrines among a predominant presence of Christian church groups and to the presentation made of them by
Swami Vivekananda. The event was talked about for the following 20 years.
This is is very interesting, considering that Atkinson was in Chicago in
1893. I understand that in the wake of Vivekananda's success in America, many
insightful Yogi's back in India sent English speaking students over, so
Bharata's existence is a great probability. Atkinson's most productive years where from
1900-1922, launching two series of writings simultaneously, the New Thought material and aka Ramacharaka.

All paper sources tell us about Atkinson writing under the pseudonym of
Ramacharaka. None of them mentions Baba Bharata. Why not? How come? Is it not a bit odd all paper sources know about Atkinson's social life, and about
Ramacharaka, but do not know anything about Atkinson working together with
Baba Bharata? There is only one so-called message that does: the one from the
YPS [see above]. How come the paper sources do not know this? Nothing from, note very well, the
YOGA Publishing Society?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these are the options as I see
them:

Atkinson wrote alone, compiling from different sources.

Atkinson met someone knowledgeable in 'Hinduism' (BB? Vivekananda? others
?) and wrote in cooperation or inspired by that person.

The question of Baba
Bharata's existence in and of itself opens another question, i.e. did the original Ramacharaka exist and was
Baba Bharata the student of Ramacharaka?

It was not Atkinson who invented Baba Bharata. The YPS person says:
"We can't account for archives and record-keeping dating back to the early years
when the authors were living and collaborating -- or so we've been told. What
information we offer was put together some years ago from bits and pieces of
stories told to us."
So it's all from hearsay. And you can be sure the ones they heard it from had not memorized their tales like the writers of the Indian
Shastras or the Tora did. Inventing a name like Baba Bharata (Bharata = India),
Mr India, is not that difficult. YPS also said in that letter Atkinson was an
Englishman. He was not. How can we trust a source that gives incorrect information? Neti, neti.

Again I agree. That's why YPS is number 459.342 on my list of credible
witnesses.

The YPS person also says: "What information we offer was put together
some years ago from bits and pieces of stories told to us. Therefore we are not able to vouch for its authenticity. The writer was making an attempt to
satisfy readers who were seeking some of the information." Did you read that
well, Khalil? "making an attempt to satisfy readers". I'd say, that puts the lid on
it.

Yes,... unfortunately...

There is one more thing to mention. My friend
Khalil has found out there is also a so-called Baba
Premananda Bharati. Mind the last letter of Bharati. It's the name
of one of the ten Swami orders of religious mendicants traced back to pupils of
Shankaracharya, the members of which add this word to their names. Baba
means 'ascetic'. Despite the word Bharati, Baba Premananda Bharati was
not the follower of Shankaracarya, but of Sri Chaitanya, the preacher of
Vaisnava philosophy (Bhakti Yoga). This philosophy was later carried on in the
Western world by Bhaktivedanta Swami and ISKCON (International Society for Krsna
Consciousness).
Khalil has found the following information on this person:

I found 2 entries in "Encycl. of American Religions, 3rd Ed. 1989 Gale Research
ISBN 0-8103-2841-0" on Baba Premanand Bharati

Here it goes:

Surendranath Mukerji (died 1914) better known by his religious name -Baba Premanand Bharati- was among the first Hindu teachers to come to America,
arriving around 1902 from Bengal. He was a student of Swami Brahmanand Bharati and a follower of the Krishna Consciousness Movement (ultimately more
well known thanks to 'Hare Krishna' movement of the '70's) and founded the
"Krishna Samaj" (now defunct).

Bharati, the nephew of a prominent Bengali judge, formed the Krishna Samaj in
N.Y.C. and lectured to popular audiences in other eastern cities. He eventually moved to L.A. where a temple was constructed and he had his
greatest following. In 1909 he returned to India where, with a few of his American disciples, he opened a mission in Calcutta. The mission failed for lack
of financial support and he & his followers returned to America. He died in
Calcutta in 1914. The temple dissolved in America soon after Bharati's death.

In the years immediately after his death, Bharati was attacked by people opposed to the growth of Hinduism in America, such as Elizabeth A. Reed,
whose study of Bharati and the other early gurus was a significant factor in
building public support for the Asian Exclusion Act passed in 1917. The strength
and devotion of Bharati's disciples, however, kept his memory alive over the
years.

In the 30's, members of the Order of Loving Service (a California mystical group)
dedicated the book "Square" as follows: " To Baba Premanand Bharati, who by
his love, patience, and continued watchfulness has led me out of darkness into
Light, out of out of weariness into Rest, out of confusion into Understanding,
out of continuous striving into Perfect Peace."

In the 70's, members of AUM Temple of Universal Truth (founded in the 20's)
were reprinting Bharati's writings in their periodical and selling pictures
of "Our Beloved Baba Bharati".

Baba Premananda Bharati was known in India, but
not in connection with Atkinson. Unlike Baba Bharata's - if indeed he ever
existed as a man of flesh and blood -, his guru's name was not Ramacharaka.
There is not one word about Ramacharaka in Baba Premananda Bharati's curriculum
vitae, either.

Perhaps the YPS "composer" had heard of
or met this Baba Premananda Bharati and has changed his name when he wrote his
piece of information, or perhaps Atkinson himself had met him and got all his
information from him. It remains a "perhaps", for we do not have any
written source that explicitly says the YPS or Atkinson knew this person.
I'm afraid we will never know for sure. It might even be so that all of it is
indeed a mere figment of Atkinson's creative Ramacharaka imagination.... And by
the by, Ramacharaka = Rama + charaka
or wandering ascetic. So Ramacharaka = the wandering
ascetic Rama.

19 October 2003 -
I got an e-mail from Philip G.
Davis, Ph.D., Professor of Religious Studies, University of Prince Edward
Island, Canada. He wrote:

I have
recently come into possession of quite a number of old books on
religious and mystical subjects. I found your page while trying to
find out about "Yogi Ramacharaka"; it was very helpful.

This collection also contains two issues of a magazine called "The
Light of India" (March and May 1907) which claims to be edited by Baba
Bharati, contains articles attributed to him as well as to Rose Reinhardt
Anthon, Elsa Barker, and E. H. Clement, and apparently sports his picture on
the cover.
Does that add anything useful to your information?

It's intriguing, but still, I'm not really sure
whether we are talking about the same Baba here. Quite often we are told to read
the small print in contracts, licences and the like, and in our case we should
have a good look at the spelling of the name Bharati. It ends in an i, not in an
a. Which takes us back to Baba Premananda Bharati, who was also called "our
beloved Baba Bharati" (see the table in red above and my comment).
One can argue the i is a spelling mistake, but I do not think so. The people
from the Yoga Publication Society called him Baba Bharata, and in their letter
they used his name several times - with an a at the end. If I spell my own
surname omitting one s, I get a full list in the White Pages... Shakespeare was
right when he asked "What's in a name?", but nevertheless there is a difference
between names and names. And according to Voltaire synonyms do not exist...

Mr. Davis was so kind as to attach g a scan of the front cover of "Light
of India" magazine, May and March 1907. You can see one of them
here
[graphic 294 KB].
Now, if you have a close look at that scan, you will notice in the left hand top
corner "Volumn 1, No. 6". That implies the magazine must have been founded in
October 1906. Comparing this to the dates given by the Yoga Publication
Society, Baba Bharata must have been 49 or
50 by that time. However, the YPS letter says Baba Bharata "had no talent for
writing"... and so Atkinson did this for him. (Quite a number of Ramacharaka's
books were published before 1907.) Why should Baba Bharata all of a sudden
change his name into Baba Bharati? As I said before, I'm afraid we will
never know for sure.

If you search the internet for the names of 'Rose
Reinhardt Anthon' and'Elsa
Barker', you will get some results, but no mentioning of Baba Bharati or
Baba Bharata for that matter.

Currently I am reading
"History of Rosicrucianism" by Christian Rebisse. To my amazement he
writes:

"The Kybalion - The New
Thought movement in the United States produced a whole range of
literature, with its most highly regarded authors being Ralph Waldo Trine,
Henry Wood, Ella Adelia Fletcher, Oliver C Sabin. Victor Turnbull, Emma
Hopkins, Prentice Mulford and WILLIAM ARTHUR ATKINSON. Atkinson,
a freemason, theosophist, member of the bar in Pennsylvania and teacher of
magnetism warrants special attention. Between 1902 and 1915, he published
about 20 works under his own name or as Yogi Ramacharaka, including The
Law of New Thought (1902) and the Hindu Yogi Science of Breath. The
originality of this author in comparison with those who preceded him was
to include in his theory and practices the relevant elements of Hinduism
and Yoga. This innovation came from his association with the Theosophical
society and in particular with Swami Vivekananda who came to Chicago in
1893 to participate in the Parliament of Religions. He gave seminars in a
number of cities before establishing the Vedanta Society in New York in
1894. In his books William Atkinson discusses health through magnetism,
mystical breathing, karma, vibrations, polarity, projection of thought or
visualisation. He was probably the author of the famous The Kybalion, a
study of the Hermetic philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece. The cover
shows that the work was of "three initiates" scarcely a veiled allusion to
Hermes Tresmagistus, the author claiming book revealed the royal art of
the Egyptians, a synthesis of all the sciences, with sources from India,
Persia and China. It revealed seven hermetic laws allegedly coming from
Hermes. Amongst these laws are the laws of correspondence, the vibrations
of life, polarity, rhythm, causality(karma) etc."

Very interesting indeed, but, once again, no
mentioning of Baba Bharati or
Baba Bharata. Perhaps what Khalil and I said (27 June
2000) may be quite correct:

It was not Atkinson who invented Baba Bharata. The YPS person says:
"We can't account for archives and record-keeping dating back to the early years
when the authors were living and collaborating -- or so we've been told. What
information we offer was put together some years ago from bits and pieces of
stories told to us."
So it's all from hearsay. And you can be sure the ones they heard it from had not memorized their tales like the writers of the Indian Shastras or the Tora did. Inventing a name like Baba Bharata (Bharata = India), Mr India, is not that difficult. YPS also said in that letter Atkinson was an
Englishman. He was not. How can we trust a source that gives incorrect information? Neti, neti.

Again I agree. That's why YPS is number 459.342 on my list of credible
witnesses.

With this final
addition I consider this search finished. I started with a name and ended
with quite a few pages (▒ 11 size A4, if you print them out). Whatever one may think of these results, bear in
mind I wrote at the beginning of this page "I had bought the books because of their contents". And if
someone may think those contents do sound a bit familiar, as long as your
soul feels pleased by them, I do not think that is a great problem. And if
you feel satisfied with the results of this search, then I feel pleased, too.
:-)

Some of Ramacharaka's books:

The Science of Breath (1903)

Fourteen Lessons in Yogi Philosophy and
Oriental Occultism (1903)

Advanced Course in Yogi Philosophy and
Oriental Occultism (1904)

Hatha Yoga, or The Yogi Philosophy of
Physical Well-being (1904)

A Series of Lessons in Raja Yoga (1905)

The Science of Psychic Healing (1906)

Lessons in Gnani Yoga, the Yoga of
Wisdom (1906)

The Bhagavad Gita (compilation)(1907)

Spirit of the Upanishads (compilation)
(1907)

When searching ('googling') the Internet for
"Ramacharaka" you will certainly find a site where you can get them.